Our first activity was a workshop, where we learned how different animals survive the winter. We already knew that lots of animals hibernate but we needed to find out what that really meant.
We dressed up to help us learn and remember the activities. Having thought about the things that a living creature needs to survive, we then focused on a bear and realised that in the winter it would have very little food available so would have to hibernate.
However, a wolf has lots of food available, such as deer and rabbits, so it can stay awake. Instead, it can grow thick fur to survive the cold.
Snakes curl up together to conserve their body heat, and frogs also hibernate but they bury themselves in the mud at the bottom of a pond.
Many birds migrate to warmer countries and finally plants go dormant.
As everyone thought that an animal needed a den, we looked at a dormouse grass nest and a harvest mouse grass nest and compared sizes. Then we saw a huge squirrel drey that had fallen out of a tree at Wildwood. It was pretty scruffy in build, but cosy with a soft lining of cotton wool that the squirrels had pinched from their Christmas decorations!
Next we used a stethoscope to listen to our heartbeats. It was quite hard to hear them and get the stethoscope in just the right place!
After that we practised beating out a bat’s incredibly fast heartbeat and then its very slow heartbeat when it is hibernating. We also learned that animals cool down when hibernating and some, like polar bears even give birth!
Then it was time to let off steam and enjoy the playground followed by our lovely picnic lunch.
After eating, and another trip to the toilet, Ada, our tutor, met us and escorted us to the Arctic foxes. The foxes came straight over to us as Ada had brought little fish for them. She told us all about them and we were able to ask lots of questions. They were extremely fluffy with little thin legs. She had a small tub of Arctic fox fur for us to feel (a bit quickly because it started to rain!) and also a red fox skull so we could feel how sharp the teeth were. Surprisingly, their teeth are self-sharpening!
Finally it was time to tour the rest of the zoo. We saw lots of deer, and identified the male and female. The wild boar were lively, like us, and the wolves were very well camouflaged in their wooded cage. We practised howling like wolves. The reindeer were resting so were a bit boring, but we enjoyed the lynx, red foxes and owls.
As we had been good, we had another swift play in the playground, along with another snack. Then it was time for a snooze on the minibus for the long journey home.
We had a great day out! Harris was the superstar of the day as he had an awful cough and suffered all day without a single complaint!